Xeon Platinum/Silver/Gold, i9-79**X, Threadripper, EPYC : where are the workstations?

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Eric Vincenot

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Aug 16, 2017
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Hello to all,
I have been following the abovementioned processor introductions quite closely.
I have an ageing (july 2009) HP Z800 2xXeon W5580. Upgrades 48Gb RAM / 1TB SSD /USB 3.0/ Quadro K5000 with dual 4k 32" screens. I use CAD CAM FEA and specific acoustic BEM sofware. I have never kept a workstation for so long.
On the same week as Intel released a new generation of Xeons or anew generation of prosumer processors there was a flurry of product introductions - Z800=>Z820=>Z840 at HP and similar at Dell, Lenovo.
This is the first time that I have had to specifically search if workstations or even simple desktop machines with i9 79**X were available. Nothing at HP, Dell, Lenovo, no marketing, no reviews of finished workstation products. No HP Z860 or Z660 no Dell 7920 or 5820.
Even the small specialists like Microway or Puget Systems talk and bench but do not offer anything.

I have never seen this before, I understand Threadripper and Epyc are very new and unavailable, I understand i9-79**X was a late decision in reaction to AMD but what I find unbelievable is the absence of workstations with Gold/Silver/Platinum when the processor is supposed to have started delivering since a year to large customers and has beeen planned and announced years in advance (E5-****v5 before the name change).

The CAD CAM CAE FEA CFD operators have not gone to compute cloud datacenters in great numbers, most still run these and Video Sound editing on workstations.

I smell a rat specific to workstation (i.e. non server) use (heat? well that's known on i9-79**X but the enormous new Xeon sockets seem better fitted for heat dissipation). In the past I would have attempted a "build" but if neither the big boys nor the small custom builders do it this is not very encouraging.

Eric
 

Eric Vincenot

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Aug 16, 2017
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Perhaps wait a few weeks.
Thanks for the quick response that I will read between the lines.

My main interest points and I am certainly just one of many :

1) Will high core counts with high TDP ratings be sufficiently fast with the improvements in "turbo turbo3" to cope with CAD low threaded tasks (daily use) so that we can use a single processor instead of two faster clocked lower core count processors that are only fully used for FEM/BEM/CFD runs (night and week end runs).

2) AVX-512 which rules out AMD but not i9-79**X. I use a very compute intensive Boundary Element for Acoustics program for which I work closely with the developer who is on the verge of going GPU while I am trying to convince him to also try AVX-512 as i9-79**X will make this technology more mainstream for scientific software. There have been a couple of interesting articles on this at Sisoftware (Sandra) and Sandra now has modules where identical scientific problems in Double Precision and Quad precision can be run in CPU and GPU with or without the various extensions. Quite a few modules use AES-512 in the latest builds.
 

zack123

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Jan 3, 2016
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Jul 8, 2017
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Hello to all,
I have been following the abovementioned processor introductions quite closely.
I have an ageing (july 2009) HP Z800 2xXeon W5580. ... In the past I would have attempted a "build" but if neither the big boys nor the small custom builders do it this is not very encouraging.

Eric
Sounds like you want to wait for the HPE ProLiant ML350 Gen10 Server or similar, this question was asked here: Solved: Re: ETA: Proliant Gen10 with AMD Epyc / Intel Skyl... - Hewlett Packard Enterprise Community - the 'answer' being, get on the Mailing List: HPE ProLiant Gen10 Information .

YT,
Rob
 

Patrick

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Just as a heads-up. I also believe that this is going to be the first generation where it is going to make more sense to move to a remote access model for high-end dual socket workstations.

I know that sounds strange but here is my reasoning: if you have 400W worth of CPU TDP, tons of RAM and say a 250-300W GPU, it is not going to be a system you want near you. The cooling demands are going (way) up as TDPs rise.

@William and I were talking about the power draw even from a single Threadripper just this morning.
 
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William

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Yes on my chip, TR 1950x, with 4GHz OC and running benchmarks I saw ~350watts being pulled for the entire system.
 

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Just as a heads-up. I also believe that this is going to be the first generation where it is going to make more sense to move to a remote access model for high-end dual socket workstations. ...
Patrick if noise is your concern there's a segment that has the same requirements, the Music Industry (specifically Computer Racks in a Recording Studio).

@Nanotech - A general Article of use to others is: Quiet Please: Advanced PC Silencing | - probably you know that already. A Chassis for people with simple needs is something like this: Antec - Take 4 + 650 .

Of specific interest to you (Patrick) is how to put a Rack in your Home and enjoy the silence.

Places like: IsoBox Studio - Sound Construction & Supply and Sound proof, soundproof, soundproof server rack (amongst others) have silent racks that accept screaming 1U Fans and baffle the noise; rendering your Rack mute.

Some of these even have fancy outer wood panels so they look like furniture.

They're more expensive than a price conscious rack, ranging from several hundred to a few thousand dollars.

Needless to say they meet North American electrical Standards and are quiet enough for a Recording Studio.
sound-construction-isobox-14ru-45-oak-right_30992_1.jpg
If you like a bit of noise before your silence then you can pull out the chainsaw and hack a hole in the wall, mount a pull-out rack that backs into a dead space or a closet using something like this:

AX-SXR-43-APP1.png
That mounts into a hole in the wall and when pulled out it rotates to give you access to the rear of the rack - unfortunately that particular model is only 1/2 rack deep (I was unable to find an image of a deeper model from someone).

Those Links and Images should give anyone a start to do their own research if they want to silence the noise of a jet engine, er, I mean a 1U Fan.
 
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zack123

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Jan 3, 2016
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Just as a heads-up. I also believe that this is going to be the first generation where it is going to make more sense to move to a remote access model for high-end dual socket workstations.
Well if they would make some sort of optical Thunderbolt 3 cable, best with standard LC or MPO connectors, one could hide the computer in the cellar or in another sound isolated place. That has always been a dream of mine.
 

zack123

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Sadly those are only Thunderbolt 2 cables, so only half the bandwidth. And no 5K or multiple 4K screens this way.
 

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Sadly those are only Thunderbolt 2 cables, so only half the bandwidth. And no 5K or multiple 4K screens this way.
@TType85 wasn't kidding about the price of the cables, 1000" of T2 cable is well over a thousand.

Zack, spending very little time I came up with this suggestion: KVM Extender - Matrox Extio F2408 - Features - that's 1 kilometer KVM with 4 2K Displays and an extender is available for 8 Displays.

Matrox has a bunch of stuff if you poke around the Website.

I think you can expect T3 cables to cost a lot more and currently 2M lengths seem to be the limit, but when you go that long you lose half the speed (so it's T2). There's not much on Apple's and Intel's Website, maybe they're going to skip to Thunderbolt 4 and that's why the silence on T3.

Matrox or Video over IP seems your best bet for over 20M on the 'cheap'. GL.
 

zack123

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Zack, spending very little time I came up with this suggestion: KVM Extender - Matrox Extio F2408 - Features - that's 1 kilometer KVM with 4 2K Displays and an extender is available for 8 Displays.
Yeah, longer range KVM extenders and Displayport/USB extenders exist, but don't look up their prices if you thought that optical Thunderbolt cable was expensive. ;-)

Essentially all current gen Apple computers have Thunderbolt 3.
 

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Yeah, longer range KVM extenders and Displayport/USB extenders exist, but don't look up their prices if you thought that optical Thunderbolt cable was expensive. ;-)

Essentially all current gen Apple computers have Thunderbolt 3.
You understand that 4K is going to need 15 Gbps, and (for example) one 2 Port 25G Card alone is $1K: QLogic FastLinQ QL45212-DE Dual Port 25GbE SFP28 Adapter, Customer Installation | Dell Canada - If your budget is less than a few K ...

Why not just buy a quiet Rack as suggested above, or use a Fat/Zero Client?

What do you want to pay for: distance, latency, bandwidth, AOTA? What's your budget?